The Murder of Mitchie
by Eloise Lawrence
Summary: Mitchie was on a school trip to Dorset, England. She was the target of a deranged man, planning to kill her. This is the story of her murder, and how her best friend Tess, survived.


**GIRL, 15, TAKEN FROM DORM ROOM ON SCHOOL TRIP IN DORSET**

_Mitchie Torres was on a school trip from America. They came to Dorset to study English beaches and spend the week there in dorm rooms. However, something went wrong when this little girl was taken during the night._

It was Monday morning and the school had arrived earlier that day. It was around time for dinner now so they were going to get settled and then go down to the mess hall to eat for the night before bed. Mitchie Torres was staying in the dorm room third in from the left hand side and she was bunking with her best friends Caitlyn Gellar, Ella Perez, Peggy Dupree and Tess Tyler.

It was 8'o'clock in the evening and all the children were leaving the mess hall. The rules were that you had to line up outside with your class, then you went in, took a seat and ate, and then you could leave when ready. Mitchie and Tess had finished early and were going to go back to the dorm room to tidy up and make it feel more homely.

"I remember when me and Mitchie left the mess hall she stopped and looked into the bushes along the path. They were just trees following the path so I didn't think anything of it when she stopped, thinking she may have seen a bird or something. I continued walking for a bit before turning and looking at her and she was waving into the bushes. I asked her what she was doing and she said that there was a child in there with a man. I thought it was just a counsellor playing a trick on someone, maybe their class but when I dragged her away, I felt a nervy feeling in my stomach when I noticed how scared she looked.' Tess Tyler, the best friend explained in her interview.

It was said that Mitchie Torres had looked to her best friend, a scared look on her face and had said to her: 'Tess, something wasn't right with that picture. The child was only a little girl and he was covering her mouth with his hand. He looked really dodgy'. It was also expressed by Tess that when the two swiftly walked away from the bushes they heard a high pitched scream when they arrived at their dorm.

Everyone around the camp had heard the scream but didn't really think anything of it because the camp was full of kids. Tess and Mitchie were the only ones who had known of the man along with this little girl, but they decided not to say anything.

Caitlyn Gellar explains what happened later on in the evening; "We were all in the dorm room as it was nearly time for bed. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, Ella was in the shower and Peggy was on the toilet. Tess and Mitchie were sitting on the top bunk looking out into the camp. They seemed to be writing things down in this secret little booklet and we were slightly suspicious. We had asked them about it but they said it was just party ideas for their 16th."

Ella Perez had said that when they were laying in bed and she was writing in her diary, Caitlyn was listening to music and Peggy was asleep that Tess was in the bathroom, you could hear her talking into her phone and Mitchie was staring out the window with a camera in her hands. "I did think it was strange, it seemed like they were doing some sort of investigation and I remember that when I had packed my stuff away and was curling up in bed that Mitchie started taking flash photo's of someone outside. I thought it was a boy she fancied but Tess ran out and looked out the window and then at the photo's. I had asked what they were doing but they told me to go to sleep, so I did".

It was explained by Tess that the two of them were writing down their ideas of what could have happened to that girl. They were looking out at the bushes and Mitchie was taking photos of the man running around. Tess was on the phone to her mum who said she was going to call the police.

"It was around 11 now and the other girls were asleep, along with the rest of our school. Mitchie was on the top bunk near the window and I was on the top bunk along the back wall. She was awake, her camera in her hand as she was looking through the pictures we got of the man in the day. I was flicking through the notes we had made but her whisper startled me slightly. She had whispered to me, 'Tess, on one of these photo's he's looking right at me. I think he saw us'. That scared me because if he saw us, that could mean we were his potential next victims. I remember fear flicking in her eyes and she slowly sat up, climbing down the wooden steps and onto the cold floor. I watched as she hid the camera in her suitcase and went into the bathroom with her phone. I could hear her on the phone to her parents. I heard her crying."

It was about 11.30 that Tess finally got to sleep, having safely seen Mitchie return to her bed after opening the window to let in some air. At around 12 Peggy woke up as a huge breeze flew through the dorm as the large bottom window was wide open.

"I woke up at 12 when a cold breeze blew my duvet off my leg. My arms had goose pimples on and with the outside lights shining in I could clearly see that the bottom window, the big one, was wide open. I looked around the dorm and saw that everyone else was asleep. I yawned, getting up and walking over to the window, shutting it and locking it before drawing the curtain across. If then I had known that there was a deranged man in their with us I would have screamed and run out."

The window was opened by this man and he had managed to climb in without anyone hearing him. He had been watching the dorm ever since he saw Mitchie take a flash photo of him. He knew that she knew what had happened and her picture was in his mind. He had walked into the bathroom and hid behind the door when he heard Peggy awake. He wasn't interested in any of the girls apart from Mitchie, because he had no idea that Tess knew.

"I woke up at around 1 in the morning because I heard this bang and a muffled scream of some sort. I sat up and looked around. I was on the bottom bunk, underneath Mitchie so I couldn't see anything happening above me. All the other girls seemed asleep so I turned and looked around at the wall. That's when I saw a shadow above me. It seemed to be a shadow of a man holding Mitchie. I pretended to be asleep but continued to watch, too scared to even move. I made a light breathing sound, attempting to sound asleep. When I gave this sort of signal I listened as I felt a loud sort of knock and a struggle. I didn't know what was happening but then I heard him coming down the ladder, I stayed dead still, scared out of my mind as this thing climbed down the ladder, now standing behind me. I felt his dragging something and I slowly turned around, being careful not to make a noise or noticeable movement, that's when I saw this 'thing' dragging a screaming, bloody Mitchie along behind him. She was still alive."

After Caitlyn had seen this she was so scared so she watched as the door was closed before she burst out crying and screaming, waking up the other girls.

"I was woken up by Caitlyn and I asked her what was wrong. She said a thing just dragged Mitchie out the room and I told her to scream and go and get the teachers."

After the realisation that Mitchie had been hurt and abducted the whole camp was awoken as Tess opened the door and started screaming into the darkness.

"I was screaming her name, louder and louder every time. I needed her to call back to me and by this time the teachers were surrounding me, along with the counsellors. I screamed her name one last time and then that's when we heard it. The whole school was standing at their doors crying as the trail of blood was along the floor leading into the woods. Most were crying and then suddenly we heard it. The scream sounded the whole camp and I could tell it was Mitchie. It was high pitched, full of fear as I knew she was being murdered."

Everyone had been told to return to their rooms but with Tess leading the crowd everyone started screaming as Tess screamed and ran into the woods. She was screaming for Mitchie but she was grabbed by Shane Grey, Mitchie's boyfriend.

He had stopped her and called the teachers over before he was joined by her other best friends. Because there lying on the floor was Mitchie. She was wearing her pyjama top but no bottoms. Her feet were cut off and her head was cut at the neck. She had multiple stab wounds dotted around her body and she was dead. Lying next to her was the little girl of around 6 years old. The one who the girls had seen earlier on in the evening.

The investigation started and it was sooner said that the man was caught on CCTV abducting both girls. Her bed was covered in blood and her pyjama bottoms were there. The trail of blood was from her wounds as he dragged her out of the room and into the woods by her hair. The bathroom had a note stuck to the mirror saying 'She shouldn't had been watching' and then there were blood marks along with a picture of Mitchie's dead body.

The man was later found and it was discovered that the man was a mental patient who escaped from prison after he murdered multiply children. He had been living in a hut in the woods and there were 6 more children found in the hut from over the years, the children who had gone missing.

The pictures were developed and the notes printed out and Tess Tyler was the girl who survived. She was lucky that the man hadn't seen her along with Mitchie, or she too – would have been raped, abducted and tortured to death that night.

The camp has been closed, all people sacked and the school has been under severe investigation, all school trips to this place now banned and the mental hospital fined an incredible amount of money.

For all of these people just happened to be involved in the murder of Mitchie.


End file.
